extreme_tooth_decay

That is odd...dunno what to tell you...I never had a problem, and I tried quite a few devices with a cheap geek squad ups....including a powerful sequence return pump with 15' of head pumping 1000 GPH.

Couple comments: 1) I've never had any problem running heaters, power heads, mag drive pumps (size 18), or external sequence pumps off UPS. 2) Some UPS are supposedly "true/pure sine wave". I was not using one of those, just a cheapo best buy UPS. 3) Make sure you have enough UPS capacity to run all you are trying to run.

I have had many good experiences with them.

That is a great link. I also saw someone saying that if you try to score the glass with a normal glass cutter, tempered glass will not score, but normal glass will. He was saying to use normal pressure, and listen for the cracking you get when you score glass. This should be done in the area you want to drill the bulkhead.

I agree it is unlikely to have tempered sides, but you never know. I once had a 55 that had all panes tempered. I even verified it by breaking them.

There are many ways to tell, including using polarized sunglasses, tapping on it, looking at it from angles looking for wavy lines, breaking it, etc. Suggest googling for more info.

Are you looking to drill the sides or bottom? The bottom is probably tempered which means you cannot drill it. The sides could be...you need to find out.

Pretty much everyone carries Jager heaters. I see them at pretty much all LFS and online. I buy mine at That Fish Place. They are either called "Jager" or "Eheim Jager". "Ebo Jager" is what they were called a long time ago before Eheim took over Ebo. There are some accounts that the newer Eheim Jager heaters are not as good as the old Ebo Jager heaters (there are also accounts that this is no longer the case)...but it still seems clear that even if this is the case, they are still enormously better than stealths, given the trouble reports I have seen.

One of my favorite subjects! That is pretty nasty looking. At least you discovered it without some catastrophe. While no heater is perfect, and there will of course be failures for them all, it has always seemed to me that there are enormously more reports of stealth heaters failing than Ebo Jager, now Eheim Jager. Here is an old compilation I made one time: LINK. This is another thread we had more recently: LINK. I don't understand why people use heaters with so many failure reports when there are heaters available that have so much fewer. At that time, I could find a single report of Jager heaters failing. I have now seen one here on WAMAS. All the people in this single thread talking about failures of stealths is enough by itself to steer me clear of them...you will not find a similar thread for Jager.

I have always really liked African cichlids. I enjoy watching them chase each other around and play king of the mountain. I am using a mix of grades of aragonite based crushed coral for ph buffering and ease of gravel-vac cleaning, which I very rarely do. Mostly smaller size crushed coral. Coarser than reef sand, finer than typical crushed coral. I also mixed a small bag (10 pound I think) of puka shells in there. I have 75 pounds of extra substrate, mixed in buckets, brand new I never used. If someone has good use for it, I'll give it to them. Here is a pic of some of the stuff I used (I sold the blue sand to someone else). I got these combo packs at a great price when I was up at That Fish Place several months back. They were probably just trying to get rid of it. If you look back at the stand build pics, you can see I even used them while constructing the stand. Double duty!

Well this stand has worked out great. Still looks nice and shiny and dead level. I noticed last night some of my fish had fry. I wasnt surprised because I had seen a female brooding eggs for a couple weeks. FW fish, but still cute and interesting. Here are the best pics I could get. The fry are super fast and skittish. These guys are about 1/2" long.

I agree with you. I like PetSmart for some things. That is why I was there. I stocked much of my african cichlid tank from there, and I'm already seeing fry. I think this store has a nice selection of nice african cichlids in good health at good prices. I certainly have my suspicions, especially given that "he" repeated one of the nonsense arguments that **** told me, namely "If any of you had cared as much as you claimed, you wouldn't have waited this long to make complaints." As soon as Chad noticed it, he reported it. As soon as I noticed it, I reported it. Nobody "waited this long". Well at least there wasn't any dispute regarding the center brace. I can't be positive about the silicone, but it sure looked awful and had been done from the outside as well as the inside...it does not matter now though.

+1 Well done Mark. And well done corporate.

The majority of this post is a flagrant lie, "Chris Schultz". I spoke very softly and looked around several times specifically to make sure no one was listening. You were not present, and if you were standing 5 feet away, you would not have heard me at any time. I will not dignify your lies with any further response.

I didn't see him, but didn't look too hard. Figured I had equal chance of another negative encounter with ****. That sounds like the actions of a responsible manager. I'd like to know what he has to say about ****. I specifically told her that the manufacturer would confirm it is a structural member.

Well, I went by there, not specifically to find her, but not going to shy away if I did see her... I can confirm the water is out of the tank and the for sale sign is gone. The gap in the center brace is also gone, as expected. That was quite a big gap. Surprising how much flex glass and silicone have. I also took a closer look at the silicone on the seams. I am about 99% sure it has been re-siliconed both inside and out. Not an especially nice job, either. The most likely scenario I can think of is that the center brace broke, it started leaking, they re-siliconed it, and set it up for sale, citing an outrageous "sticker price" of $3200 to sell it fast. But that is just speculation. And alas, I didn't see my buddy ****.

Ah, Mark, yes that is the guy I mentioned previously in this thread that seemed like a good guy to me before. That is good news. This is a great example of us all pulling together and getting something done. I'll try to resist the temptation to find out when **** is working and go have a triumphant word with her.

I am encouraged as well. I was pleasantly surprised the guy already knew about the issue without looking anything up. It was also nice that he seemed concerned and not angry, combative, loud, etc. They gave me the same address that Chad posted. I mailed the paper letter and also used the online form to send the same letter. Would've use fax but they don't have one.

What I liked was that the guy on the phone already knew the store and complaint I was talking about when I mentioned a broken center brace and a safety concern.

Now that they cannot plead ignorance I would think they could be. I talked to PetSmart corporate to make sure I had the right address to send the letter to. They mentioned they had recieved a number of complaints and were working on the issue and would get back to me in 3-5 days.

Here is the letter I am mailing today: To whom it may concern, I am writing to inform you of a safety issue and my attempt to point it out to a store manager at the PetSmart store at this address: 3351 Jefferson Davis Hwy Alexandria, VA 22305 (703) 739-4844 This past weekend I noticed a 72 gallon bowfront display tank in the store that was fully set up, and for sale. This tank has a broken center brace. There is a gap in the center brace of about 3/4". The center brace is an important structural component of the tank. With a broken center brace, substantial additional pressure is placed on the silicone seams, and they can and do fail. This could potentially fail in a catastrophic manner, releasing 500 pounds of water. It is ill advised to have a display tank with a major structural component completely broken and stressed 3/4" beyond its intended limit. I discussed this issue with several people in my fish club, and we decided this issue was very serious and should be resolved immediately. To that end: 1: Multiple people used PetSmart's corporate contact form online to file reports. 2: I went to personally bring the issue to the attention of a store manager on Nov 15 at approximately 7pm. I spoke with a store manager, I believer her name was ****. I pointed out my safety concern to her. I also indicated that I believe the manufacturer does not recommend filling a tank with a broken center brace with water. She almost immediately became very angry, defensive, and combative and raised her voice several times. I remained completely calm the entire time. She believes it is "obvious" that there is no safety issue because the tank is currently holding water. This appears to be her opinion only, not due in any way to guidance from the manufacturer. She has no plans to take the tank down or not sell it. She did mention that she could tell customers how to get the replacement part (which is incredibly difficult to install), but would not tell them it is a safety concern. She will not tell any customer there is a safety concern with the tank. In fact she told me she would tell any customer that the tank has been set up for a long time and so is "obviously" safe. I told her that because a ticking time bomb has not exploded, that does not make it safe. It is still a bomb. She claims there have been several offers on the tank. I find the response of this manager to be completely unacceptable. When a customer approaches a store manager with a safety concern, all efforts must be made to address the concern. At an absolute minimum, she should have: 1) Offered to contact the tank manufacturer and get guidance from them 2) Tell potential customers who wish to buy the tank that there may be a safety concern due to the broken structural component 3) Behaved in a professional manner I hope that some action can be taken on this issue before: 1) The tank breaks in the store and injures/kills someone 2) Someone unknowingly buys the tank and takes it home and injures themselves because a known safety issue was not disclosed to them. PetSmart has been informed of this safety concern through all means available to me. It is my opinion there is a liability concern, not to mention an ethical concern. I may be contacted at: <snip>